Distracted driving rules drive you to distraction

by Tom Johansmeyer on

Road trips are a staple of summer travel. You load up the car, cram in the kids and put the pedal to the metal. Well, it’s not that simple any more. The rules with which you have to contend vary from state to state, especially when it comes to distracted driving (also “known as get off your cell phone while driving”). Can you go hands free? Should you just shut up and drive? It depends on the state.

We’ve become more reliant on our cell phones, and not just for talking. Travel apps abound, and iPhones, BlackBerry devices and Androids laden with them help us communicate with each other to get local color, find hotels and cheap gas and even get from Point A to Point B without getting lost. All these tools that make travel easier could make driving safely harder, as you desperately need to monitor the Twitter public timeline while blowing down the highway at an absurd rate of speed.

Well, it turns out that keeping track of distracted driving rules from state to state, particularly if you’re on a long road trip, can lead you into distracted driving. Simply put: trying to obey the law can cause you to break it.Distracted driving laws, according to MSNBC, are far from uniform:

So far, 30 states – and some local jurisdictions, including Chicago and Phoenix – now have laws that address using cell phones or sending text messages while driving. Fines range from $20 to $150 for the first offense.

Unfortunately, the laws aren’t uniform. One state may ban handheld phone use in cars while another may allow it. Texting while driving is banned in dozens of states, but will result in a ticket in others only if you get into an accident.

Just keeping track of distracted driving laws can distract the heck out of you. So, you may want to print them out, MSNBC suggests, particularly since these laws aren’t always posted at state borders. A better idea, I think, is to e-mail or text them to yourself … which only works in states where you can use your cell phone while driving. D’oh!

Even better? Bring a copilot.

[photo by Lord Jim via Flickr]

Listen up: America’s top 10 outdoor concert venues

by Gadling Staff on

Outdoor arenas, beach-side stages, amphitheaters under the stars – the sounds of summer are everywhere, you just have to buy a ticket. So where do you go to hear the best music and see the best concerts? Next time you want a little groove in your summer night, take a trip to one of the top outdoor music venues in America and enjoy the sounds of summer.

Nikon at Jones Beach Theater, Wantagh, New York. The primary summer stop for every major act in the New York Metropolitan area. Everyone from Phish to Rush has rocked the beach. The stage is surrounded by the open water of New York‘s Great South Bay. Boats often cruise close for a listen.

The Greek Theatre, Berkeley, California. The “home field” of the good ol’ Grateful Dead is in California. Stunning acoustics, the mellowest, intimate crowds and that unique University vibe – it’s on the campus of the University of California at Berkeley. Home to the annual Berkeley Jazz Festival.

The Gorge Amphitheater, George, Washington. Perfectly situated over the Columbia River, The Gorge Amphitheater in Washington is widely regarded as the most inviting outdoor venue in the country. Scenery, sound and weather are routinely picture perfect. Pearl Jam recorded their monstrous box set here.

Buckeye Lake Music Center, Hebron, Ohio. Thanks to a steep open-air “mountainside”, a rainy night turns this Oregon Ohio concert venue into a true mudslide/madhouse. Spacious camping and tailgating scenes outside make this venue a total summer free-for-all.Saratoga Performing Arts Center, Saratoga, New York. Security is mellow here and the scene outside is always friendly. The venue itself features a well covered and expansive pavilion with open lawn seating behind it. Frequenters include James Taylor, Carly Simon and Carole King.

Summerstage, Central Park, New York City. “Hot town, summer in the city…” A truly intimate outdoor venue, if there is such a thing. Tucked away in a corner of the park on the Upper East Side, surrounded by trees and wonderful breezes is Summerstage in New York City. Once the gig ends, you can spill out into the streets of the greatest city in the world to keep the party going.

Merriweather Post Pavilion, Columbia, Maryland. Wide open green spaces, surrounded on all sides by breezy trees and forest of the most pristine variety. The venue itself is small but has great acoustics. For sonic reference, dig The Jerry Garcia Band’s recorded and released performance.

Alpine Valley Music Theater, East Troy, Wisconsin. Wisconsin in the summertime equals bright sun, low humidity, and clean air, which makes for an awesome evening under the stars at Alpine Valley. Every major rock act you can think of swings through during the summer, including Dave Matthews, who has long considered it his favorite place to play.

 Red Rocks Amphitheater, Morrison, Colorado. The mecca of American outdoor music, this venue is embedded in multi-hued mountains and stone monoliths, surrounded by breathtaking views of..well…the red rocks of Colorado. It’s acoustically perfect and a majestic experience. U2’s legendary documented performance still sets the standard.

Drew Moss is a Seed.com contributor.

Report: Summer forecast improves for hotels

by Melanie Nayer on

Summer has always been the peak travel season for U.S. travelers. While the past few summers have kept more Americans at home than usual, the summer of 2010 is shaping up to be a much better travel season, especially for hotels.

According to STR’s revised 2010 summer forecast, the U.S. hotel industry is forecast to end the summer with increases in all three key performance metrics in year-over-year comparisons – occupancy, daily rate and revenue.

For the months of June, July and August, STR – a worldwide leader in hotel benchmarking and research statistics – anticipates hotel occupancy to increase 4.3 percent to 64.4 percent; the increase in average daily room rate will rise 0.1 percent to $97.17; and revenue per available room will increase 4.5 percent to $62.60.

This is a successful jump from the summer of 2009, when STR reported occupancy fell 9.1 percent to 61.7 percent; average daily room rates dropped 9.6 percent to $97.15 from the previous year, and revenue for available room was down 17.8 percent to $59.96.

What’s this mean for travelers? The economy is still on the up-and-up and travelers are starting to resurface and indulge in their favorite travel traditions. If you haven’t already booked a vacation, it’s time to make some buying decisions. As hotels start to book at occupancy, less rooms will be available for discounts or upgrades. Want a few tips? Check out: Ask Gadling: Getting the most (hotel) bang for your buck.

[via HotelMarketing.com]

Summer travel: how not to sizzle your skin

by Laurel Miller on

The good folks at CNN have released a helpful guide and accompanying photo gallery horror show of solar ray-blasted epidermis. In “5 ways to avoid getting deep-fried,” you’ll find dermatologist’s tips to protect your sun from UVA/UVB damage, skin cancer detection links, and entertaining anecdotes of CNN reporters’ worst sunburns/precursors to melanoma.

I love the sun as much as most holiday-makers, but years of basting myself in baby oil, combined with the onset of crow’s feet in my early twenties and my mother’s own ongoing struggle with basal and squamous cell carcinomas have turned me into the Queen of Sunscreen. While my friends still mock me, and a former farmers market employer once remarked, “I can always tell when you’ve been hugging my dog, because he smells like sunscreen!” I feel vindicated because at 41, I look a good ten years younger, and have yet to develop my first pre-cancerous lesion. I get an annual screening at my dermatologist, and religiously apply a minimum of SPF 30 UVA/UVB sunblock over all exposed body parts (please remember the back of your neck, hands, ears, and knees, and tops of your feet).

Gadling has a more detailed explanation of what the heck all this SPF stuff means, and a guide to choosing sunglasses that do more than just look hip. I also wear, and heartily endorse (unpaid, of course) the sun protective clothing by ExOfficio, and sun protective hats by Outdoor Research. Sounds wacky, but these items are constructed with UPF (ultraviolet protection factor) textiles that, while not a substitute for sunblock, provide a great dual-defense system. They’re also attractive, and incredibly versatile and travel-friendly. Don’t hide from the sun this holiday weekend; just take precautions, have fun, and think of all the money you’ll save by not requiring reconstructive surgery and Botox.

(Image credit: Flickr/Saspotato)

Travel Trends: Orlando, Las Vegas top summer destinations for 2010

by Gadling Staff on

Perhaps fueled by a sense that the economy is improving, millions of Americans are gearing up to travel this summer. And when it comes to summer travel, Americans are nothing if not decisive about where we want to go.

This summer’s top two destinations – hands down – are Orlando and Las Vegas, according to a recent survey conducted with members of the American Society of Travel Agents (ASTA).

Orlando ranks highest among the trips that agents are booking – 17.7% say the theme-park capital is this summer’s Number One destination. No doubt, that’s due in some part to the buzz building over the June 18 opening of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Orlando Resort.

Las Vegas is Number Two at 16.2%.

“There are a lot of discounts and deals right now for those cities,” explains Melissa Teates, director of research at ASTA in Alexandria, Va. “But, generally, most people just know they’ll have a good time in these cities. Orlando and Vegas really exist as vacation destinations.”Also among the top 10 major destinations this summer are San Francisco, Miami, Los Angeles, and Honolulu.

Another hot spot, New York City, is hotter than it’s been in some time.

It zoomed up the chart from Number Ten in 2009 — with 1.4% of ASTA members saying it was their top booking — to Number Six this year at 2.8%.

Teates says people are eager to travel after having put it off during the recession. But, she notes, many travelers are still holding down expenses. One way to do that is by staying relatively close to home.

“People want to travel more, but they’re being careful with costs,” she says. “A city like New York looks good. If you live on the East Coast, you can take a train. If you’re in the Midwest, it’s a short flight.”

[Data source: ASTA]

See more Travel Trends.